Improvement in methods of finishing horseshoes



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. A. BURDEN.

METHOD OF FINISHING H QRSESHOES. No.17Z,604. Patented Jan. 25,1876.

' r l MM i MPEI'ERS. PHQTO-UTHOGRAPHER, WASHYNGTON, D. C.

Z SheetsSheet 2.

J. A. BURDEN. METHOD OF FINISHING IIoRsI sII'oEs. No.172,604. PatentedJ'an.25,1876,

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UNITED STATES PATENT DEEIGE.

JAMEs'A. BURDEN, 0E TROY, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN METHODS OF FINISHING HO RSESHOES'.

Specification form ng part of Letters Patent No. 172,604, dated January25, 1876; application filed October 6, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES A. BURDEN, of Troy, in the county ofRensselaer and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements inthe Manufacture of Horse and Mule Shoes by Machinery of which thefollowing is a specification In that class of horseshoe-machines inwhich the shoe is bent and swaged into shape before it is creased andpunched it has been found extremely difficult, if not impracticable, togive to the crease in its cross-section its proper size and shape. Theseshould conform to' the head of the nail, so that the latter may fit thecrease and hold the shoe to its place without looseness or displacement.When the crease is to be made in a straight bar, moving in line with thecreaser, this may be accomplished (though with some difficulties) by aproper shapeof the tool; but when the crease curves away from such line,as it does in a bent blank, and the movement is in part across thecrease, it is necessary to give to the creaser a beveled or V shape thatit may readily enter and leave I the iron on which it operates.Moreover, the strains upon the creaser, which sometimes areconsiderable, are thus brought partly across its edge, and it requires athickness of material much greater than the proper width of the creaseto resist such strains; and in making creases in straight bars thematerial between the roll that holds the blank and the creasers becomeschilled when the crease is made sufficiently near to the outer edge, animperfect crease results, and frequent breakage of the tool. To avoidthis the creases in straight bars as well as in curved ones are made toofar from the edge, and with creasers too wide and strong to form aproper shoe. The holes in the shoe should also conform to the size andshape of the nails that'are driven through them; There must be a [itbetween the two to hold the shoe firmly to its place; but whether thecrease and holes are made in a straight bar or after it has been bent ithas been found impracticable to use a punch as small as these holesrequire. Many attempts have been made to punch these holesautomatically, and while the iron was still heated, but the difficultyof making punches small enough that would withstand the heat andpressure to which they are subjected has hitherto been found aninsurmountable objection. They are now universally (so far as I amaware) punched when the iron is cold, one hole at a time, and still theholes are unavoidably made much too large, and the losses and delaysfrom breakage constitute a very important item in the expense of makinghorseshoes. It is also very important that the holes in h rseshoes,especially those on the sides of the shoe, should be made near the outeredge, otherwise the nails when setting the shoe will be driven Withinthe walls of the 1100f and injure the horse. holes forces the ironoutward into unsightly protuberances on the outside of the shoe, andthis, whether the crease has been made before or after the shoe has beenbent. The effect diminishes as the holes are made farther from the edge,and to prevent too irregular an outline and bad appearance these holeshave to be made nearly along the middle line of theshoe. For thesereasons shoes made by machinery have been regarded as inferior to thosemade by hand, and although perfect in general shape and sold at aboutthe same pass it while heated through another machine,

or part of the same machine, that, pressing against the outer edges,forces the material back to its proper place, narrows the creases andthe holes as much as desired, brings the outer edges sufficiently nearto the holes, and gives a smooth and perfect outline to the shoe.

The necessity for small tools is thus avoided.

They may be made two or three times thicker than the finished width ofthe creases and holes, and strong enough to operate in hot iron or insteel.

The machinery that efl'ects these objects may be much varied. I haveused several forms. One thatI have found entirely successful isrepresented in the accompanying drawings.-

Punching the Figure'l is a perspective view of the whole machine madeseparately from the machines that form the shoe. Fig.2 is a verticallongitudinal section through the middle of the machine along the line.1"- w in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical middle section, at right anglesto the former along the line y y in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a horizontalsection along the line 2 z in Fig. 2, showing the slides, the sideswages attached, and the cams that actuate them. Fig. 5 is an enlargedvertical longitudiinal section through the several dies, and a shoe inplace being swaged. Fig. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional viewot' theshaft and cam that actuates the plunger.

Each part is indicated by the same letterin the several drawings.

Thetwo ends of the cast-iron frame are shown atA A. They are connectedat the top by two side plates, B B, attached bybolts and nuts, and atthe bottom by two bars, 0 O, with screws and nuts. The frame stands upona. heavy iron plate, D, to which it is bolted. Upon these ends are castor bolted projections E E E E, to make bearings for the two verticalshafts F F, and, upon the inside, are also cast or bolted theprojections G G, to support the slides H H and their guides. The mainshafti is supported on the top of the frame. It has its hearings on theends, and is held in place by caps J J, in the usual manner. At eitherend may be attacheda pulley or a gear-wheel, through which the machineis put in motion. At about the middle is the cam K, which gives theproper movements to the plunger L, and near the ends are attachedbevel-wheels MM, which mesh into the bevelsN N, of the same size andnumber of teeth, and drive the two upright shafts F F. The plungercarries what I term the upper die. (Shown at 0.) It is fitted to slideup and down within the space formed by the two sides and the two ends,and fills the same. The upper part is hollowed out to receive the cam,and over the top are the caps P P, secured to it by screws and nuts. Theorifice thus formed fits the cam at the top and bottom, but is nottouched by it at any other point, and a vertical movement only is thusimparted to the plunger. An outline of this orifice is shown by thecross-section, Fig. 6. In the bottom of the plunger a place is providedfor inserting the top die, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and this is heldin place by a cap, a, with screws and nuts, Figs. 1 and 3. Around theperiphery of the cast-iron wheel W are attached by screws the lower diesR B. This wheel has its bearings in boxes fitted in recesses cast in thetwo ends of the frame, and is held to its place by caps and screws. Itis provided with seats around the periphery,

made wider than the disk of the wheel, on

which to place the dies, and from every second one ribs extend to theshaft, to increase its lateral strength. Theselower dies receive theshoe to be swaged. The middle elevated portion has at its base the shapeto be given to the inside of the shoe. Above the thickness of the shoeit tapers, and extends upward one or one and a half inch. This enablesit to receive a shoe with imperfections on its inside. The base orhorizontal part is pressed when in use by the under or creased side ofthe shoe, and extends from the middle elevated part to about the insideof the crease. There is a hole through the middle to receive a bolt anda rib on the bottom, by which it is secured to the wheel. The upper dieis a rectangular block, with a tapering vertical hole through themiddle, that fits over the elevated part of the lower die. Its undersurface has the shape of the upper surface of the shoe, and may extendout a little beyond the shoe, or (as I rather prefer it) fall alittlesay, an eighth of an inchwithin the outer edge. The shoe is placedupon the elevated part of the lower die. The upper die comes down uponit and presses it firmly against the bottom or horizontal part, and thetwo hold it in place while the side dies or swages come up and press theouter edge into proper shape and close up sufficiently the creases andholes. A wedge, S, that is insert: ed over the top of the upper die andpresses against the plunger, serves to adjust the proper height of thedie, and it is held in place and regulated by a screw and nut. (Seen inFig. 3.)

The vertical shafts on the sides of the machine are held to-thei'rbearings by caps and screws U U in the usual manner. They carryeccentrics T T, which operate the slidesH H. These slides move on waysmade in orifices cast in the ends of the frame, and on the projectionsGr Gr. They are held in place sidewise 1 by guides V V, and these areadjusted and I held by the set-screws X X X in the frame.

The ends of the slides that embrace the cocentrics are fully shown inFig. 4. The orifices are made on the same principle as that in theplunger. The eccentrics press against those sides only that are at rightangles to the movement of the slides.

it is necessary that the plunger should stand stationary to hold theshoe in place; and, to

effect this object, a part of the cam that aetu-" ates the plunger ismade concentric with the shaft, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 6.

The shoes to be swaged are placed on the dies on the wheel, either byhand or automatically, and at every revolution of the main shaft thewheel is revolved sufliciently to bring another shoe in place under theupper die. To effect this movement a part of the plunger and of the camthat moves it are cut away, as shown at Z in Figs. 2 and 3. Aneccentric, b, is attached to the shaft, around which is the strap 0,connected by screws and nuts to the upper part d that extends upward tothe lever e, to which it is attached by a joint. The shaft f,

To these slides are at-' tached, by screws and bolts, the side dies oron which this lever vibrates, has its bearings on two upright pieces, 9g, attached to the caps J J. To the other end of the lever H isattached, by a joint also, the pawl z. A spring, It, holds the pawl toits place and against the stop j.v

The pawl, in its upward movement, drops in against the elevated part ofa lower die and presses the wheel around by its downward movement, andthe eccentric is so adjusted that the movement of the wheel takes placewhen the dies are wholly disconnected. Should there be anyfailure in thewheels being brought accurately to its place by the pawl, the upper die,sliding down the conical elevated part of the lower die, brings it toits place and holds it there until the shoe is completed.

In those cases in which a straight blank or bar is creased and punchedbefore it is bent into the form of a horseshoe, the swaging to close upthe creases and holes to a proper size may be eflected in a very simplemanner. The blank may be put in place by hand and a reciprocatingmovement of a swage or die adapted to press against the parts of theblank that need it will be all the machinery required. A more rapid wayis to pass the blank between two rolls, one of which is in part cut awayand the remainingpart fitted to give the requisite compression upon theblank; and with shoes that have been bent and swaged before they .wishto be understood as limiting my claims to the precise machinerydescribed; but

What I do claim as an improvement in the manufacture of horse and muleshoes by machinery is- The method of first making the creases andnail-holes of broader dimensions than is proper in the finished shoe, inorder thereby to employ punches and creasers of large dimensions, andthen partially closing said creases and nail-holes, reducing them totheir proper sizes,

and at the same time imparting evenness of contour to the blank by diesacting to compress the blank edgewise, substantially as described.

JAMES A. BURDEN. Witnesses:

,ESEK OowEN, JoHN J. HASSETT.

